New Ukrainian Erasmus Mundus students received practical training before their departure for studies in the EU (22/07/2009)
This was the very first orientation meeting of its kind organised for future Erasmus Mundus students from Eastern Europe. The day-long pre-departure orientation, which took place at the EC Delegation in Kyiv, was attended by more than twenty newly admitted Erasmus Mundus students from Ukraine. The meeting was jointly organised by the European Commission Delegation to Ukraine and the CIS & Mongolia Regional Chapter of the Erasmus Mundus Students and Alumni Association.
The main objective of the orientation meeting was to familiarise them with issues related to their future Master studies, but also to prepare them to solve practical everyday situations related to their stay in the EU countries. Specific training was provided on cross-cultural communication skills.
Future students highly appreciated a special session with diplomats from those EU countries, where students will study in 2009/2010. In particular, representatives of the embassies of Germany, France, the Netherlands, Poland and Spain participated in the session. The dialogue helped students to establish direct contacts with respective embassies, which also presented their best practice examples like the facilitation of visa issuance for these students or different forms of maintaining contacts with them after their return to Ukraine. Similarly, future Erasmus Mundus students were given the opportunity to meet and share personal experiences of their older colleagues, former Erasmus Mundus students from Ukraine.
The pre-departure orientation was also devoted to discussions on the potential integration of new Erasmus Mundus students into the alumni community after their return to Ukraine. The existing Erasmus Mundus alumni provides current as well as former students with the opportunity to meet, communicate, exchange opinions and most importantly to spread the knowledge about their experiences as part of Erasmus Mundus Programme.
Kyiv pre-departure orientation opened a series of such orientations in the other CIS countries- on 20July a similar event took place in Chisinau, Moldova, and the next one is scheduled for 31 July in Moscow, Russia. Next year, the pre-departure orientation in Ukraine is planned to host students and alumni from the neighbouring countries- Moldova and Belarus.
More information about Erasmus Mundus:
http://ec.europa.eu/education/external-relation-programmes/doc72_en.htm